Students aged 12 to 15 steered bus to safety and called for help after driver lost consciousness from asthma attack
Middle school students in Mississippi acted quickly to halt their school bus from crashing after their driver passed out while on a highway, prompting the operator to declare: “They saved my life.”
The bus in question had just left the Hancock middle school in the Mississippi community of Kiln on Wednesday when the driver, Leah Taylor, suffered an asthma attack and lost consciousness.
When Unai Emery declared the “Premier League is the priority” despite a looming Europa League semi-final, he could not have envisaged the lifeless display his Aston Villa team would produce at Craven Cottage.
Perhaps his players disagree with their manager’s preference for domestic affairs, or maybe the London spring sunshine proved too much of a distraction from footballing matters. Either way, Villa departed Craven Cottage on Saturday lunchtime with an emptiness fully deserving of their minimal endeavours, having managed just one shot on target all match.
Dnipro bore the brunt of the attacks but Odesa and Kharkiv were also targeted in largest onslaught for several days
Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine killed at least seven people overnight, including five in the city of Dnipro, Ukrainian local authorities have said.
Reports say that at least 34 people have been injured in the strikes, which lasted “practically all night”, according to the Dnipropetrovsk regional head, Oleksandr Hanzha. The bodies of four people were found in the ruins of a house destroyed in the attacks, and workers continued to search for bodies on Saturday morning.
Hisham Abugharbieh was arrested after standoff with police and charged with killing Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy
The man who was detained after two Bangladeshi doctoral students went missing from the University of South Florida (USF) has been booked with two counts of murder.
Hisham Abugharbieh faces two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree with a weapon in the deaths of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, the Hillsborough county sheriff’s office announced on Saturday.
She backed the president as he ran millions of dollars in anti-trans ads. Now she’s disappointed her passport has the wrong gender
Thoughts and prayers for Caitlyn Jenner. It seems that it’s starting to dawn on the Olympian and reality TV star that being a rich, white, Maga supporter doesn’t entirely shield her from Donald Trump’s transphobic policies.
What sparked that realization? Was it the millions of dollars spent by the Trump campaign on anti-trans ads during the 2024 election? Was it, perhaps, the fact that one of Trump’s very first acts in his second term, conducted just hours after he took office, was to sign an executive order which stated that government-issued identification documents would be changed to reflect the holder’s “immutable biological classification as either male or female”, defined by a person’s cells at conception – in other words, your passport would reflect the sex you were assigned at birth?
As if the job wasn’t tough enough, Wales will have to do without two of their more senior players as ex-captain Hannah Dallavalle, as well as captain Kate Williams are out injured.
That means Jenna De Vera, who made her Test debut against France off the bench last week, starts at inside centre.
Physicists have proposed a new kind of atomic clock based on a revived superradiant laser concept that could produce an extraordinarily stable signal with a linewidth around 100 microhertz, potentially the narrowest ever for an optical laser. "The implications of this result could stretch well beyond timekeeping," reports Phys.org. "A laser immune to environmental frequency shifts would be a powerful tool in optical interferometry -- using interference patterns in light to make ultra-precise measurements." From the report: In a conventional laser, a mirrored cavity bounces light back and forth between atoms, building up a bright, coherent beam. A superradiant laser works differently: rather than relying on the cavity to maintain coherence, the atoms themselves act as single coordinated emitters, collectively synchronizing their light emission. Following early theoretical ideas emerged in the 1990s, the concept didn't gain concrete traction until 2008, when researchers at the University of Colorado proposed that superradiant lasers could serve as a new kind of atomic clock.
Atomic clocks work by using laser light to probe a very precise transition in an atom, causing electrons to transition between energy levels at an extraordinarily stable frequency. Because a superradiant laser stores its coherence in the atoms rather than the cavity, its output frequency is far less vulnerable to environmental disturbances like vibrations or temperature fluctuations. Yet although this concept was first demonstrated experimentally in 2012 in a pulsed regime, the influence of heating has so far held superradiant lasers back from their full potential. To keep the laser running continuously as an atomic clock requires, atoms must be constantly replenished with energy. Doing this atom-by-atom delivers random kicks that heat the atomic sample and disrupt the lasing process, confining it to brief pulses rather than a steady beam.
In their study, Reilly's team considered whether a modification to earlier theoretical concepts could make a continuous laser suitable for an atomic clock. In almost all previous studies, atoms were treated as simple two-level systems: an electron sitting in a ground state, occasionally jumping up to an excited state and back again. The team proposed that the heating problem could be solved by adding one extra ground state to the picture. In a two-level system, if both the pumping (re-energizing) and decay processes happen collectively through the cavity, the mathematics constrains the system in a way that prevents stable, continuous lasing. But with three levels available, pumping and decay can operate on entirely separate transitions, breaking that constraint and allowing the collective approach to work. The findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Bij de oprit van de A20 in Schiedam is zaterdagmiddag een auto uit de bocht gevlogen. De wagen kwam uiteindelijk onder de geluidswal naast de snelweg tot stilstand. De bestuurder kwam er zonder verwondingen vanaf.
Door het ontbreken van Jakub Moder, heeft hoofdtrainer Robin van Persie gekozen voor Kraaijeveld op het middenveld. Dat betekent dat Tobias van den Elshout nog altijd de linksbuiten van Feyenoord is. Verder keren achterin Gernot Trauner en Jordan Bos terug.
Een auto is zaterdagmiddag aan de Heiweg in Oud-Alblas in de sloot beland. Dat gebeurde tijdens het evenement Kids and Cars. In de Chevrolet Corvette zaten een man en een jongen, die beiden ongedeerd zijn gebleven.
Met het besluit legt staatssecretaris Van der Burg (VVD) een bijna unanieme motie uit de Tweede Kamer naast zich neer. Hij schrijft in antwoord op Kamervragen niet anders te kunnen.
Franse journalisten weten het heel zeker: Paul Seixas is het nieuwe, grote wonderkind van het wielrennen. In de Franse media willen ze niet te hard van stapel lopen, maar klinken er wel al enthousiaste geluiden dat Seixas een perfecte combinatie is van Eddy Merckx, Tadej Pogačar, Bernard Hinault en Jezus Christus.
“Je moet ze niet met elkaar willen vergelijken, dat is lullig voor Merckx”, stelt Marc Martin-Benard van wielerpodcast La lanterne rouge absolue. “Uit respect voor Eddy zullen we nog een tijdje doen alsof hij en Seixas van hetzelfde niveau zijn, totdat Paul uiteindelijk zijn twaalfde grote ronde heeft gewonnen. Daarna kunnen we los qua verslaggeving.”
De Franse journalist Arthur Dufontaine is ook lyrisch, maar plaatst meteen wel een kanttekening bij de vergelijkingen: “Jezus Christus heeft nog nooit de Waalse Pijl gewonnen, dus slaat het nergens op om ze in hetzelfde rijtje te zetten. Tegelijkertijd: ik heb gekkere dingen gezien in het wielrennen.”
bWelcome back to the Abstract! Here are the stories this week that battled rivals, devoured sharks, solved riddles, and left fingerprints in the sky.
First, scientists chronicle the victories of a jousting champion unlike any other in all of history. Then: it turns out that krakens are real, the mystery of the Golden Orb is solved, and the Northern winds are changing.
Meet Bruce, a kea parrot that lost the top half of his beak about 12 years ago. Despite his injury, Bruce is the undisputed alpha male of his “circus,” the term for a group of kea. He remains undefeated in dominance battles with rivals, allowing him to live a life of luxury in his long-time home at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in New Zealand.
Now, Bruce has inspired one of the most delightful questions ever asked in an academic paper: “How does the kea missing his upper beak win every fight and not get stressed?”
The answer is Bruce’s invention of “beak jousting,” a set of moves that has ruffled feathers among his “intact” rivals, allowing him to ascend to the top of the pecking order.
“Bruce deployed his exposed lower beak in jousting thrusts, both at close range, with an extension of his neck, and from afar, with a run or jump that left him overbalanced forward with the force of motion,” said researchers led by Alexander Grabham of the University of Canterbury.
“Bruce has therefore weaponised his disability through behavioural innovation: jousting is a behaviour not observed in other kea, with different motor patterns, that targets a wider range of body parts,” the team said.
In this way, Bruce has maintained his position as the ringleader of the circus, a position that comes with appreciable benefits. The other birds give him dibs at all feeders in the preserve where he eats undisturbed, plus, he is the only male that is groomed by other males as opposed to female mates. He has been observed enjoying these “allopreening” services from his excellently-named male subordinates Taz, Megatron, Joker, and Neo.
Bruce being Bruce. Image: Alex Grabham
“This provides evidence of up-hierarchy allopreening: it was exclusive to the alpha and generally increased in frequency inversely to dominance, with the highest frequency of allopreening done by the lowest-ranking male,” the team said (Taz is bottom of the heap, in case you’re curious). “This is likely a key factor in why Bruce exhibits the lowest stress: allopreening is associated with reduced glucocorticoids.”
Alpha males in other species normally have higher stress levels than their subordinates, but Bruce has found a way to kick back and chill out. Indeed, this isn’t the first time he’s been the subject of scientific fascination; a 2021 study reported Bruce’s use of pebbles as tools of self-care. The fact that he displays such immense behavioral flexibility and resilience “brings into question whether well-intentioned prosthetic assistance for physically impaired animals will always improve positive animal welfare,” according to the study.
“The bird missing his upper beak has rewritten what disability means for behaviourally complex species,” the team concluded.
In other news…
Who left all these fingerprints in the extratropical zone?
Everyone wants to change the world, and well, we did it folks. Scientists have discovered “a human fingerprint” in the atmospheric circulation of the Northern hemisphere during winter, according to a new study.
In other words, the impact of human-driven climate change is measurably causing the structure of Northern jet streams to shift over time, a trend that can be observed across multiple different datasets, and which may be a blind spot in our current climate models.
“We find that the pattern or ‘fingerprint’ of wind changes caused by increased greenhouse gases predicted by the models matches with observed changes and that random variability cannot explain the changes,” said authors Russell Blackport and Michael Sigmond of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis.
“If the models are underestimating the human-caused response, we expect the circulation trends to continue at a faster rate than models predict,” the team added. “Understanding the cause of these discrepancies will be crucial for obtaining accurate projections of regional climate change.”
While this is not your typical biometric data, we are still leaving figurative prints in the skies. The good news is that at least there are experts and instruments monitoring these shifts—for now.
April has been a very octopusian month, featuring new discoveries about octopus sex and octopus imposters. How fitting to round it out with an amazing tale of real-life “krakens”—octopuses that may have exceeded 60-feet in length (!)—that once prowled the Cretaceous seas as apex predators.
“With a calculated total length of ~7 to 19 meters, these octopuses may represent the largest invertebrates thus described, rivaling contemporaneous giant marine reptiles,” said researchers co-led by Shin Ikegami and Yasuhiro Iba of Hokkaido University. “Their position in the food chain, however, has remained completely unknown since direct evidence such as the stomach contents of these giants has not been found to date.”
Concept art of Cretaceous kraken Nanaimoteuthis haggarti. Image: Yohei Utsuki: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Hokkaido University
In the absence of any preserved octopus guts, the team looked at wear-and-tear on jaw fossils of these extinct giants for insights about their diet. The results revealed ample evidence of “a powerful bite” and “dynamic crushing of hard skeletons.” In other words, these krakens may not have only rivaled iconic ocean predators of this age—such as sharks or giant mosasaurs—they may have devoured them as well.
These ancient giants “probably consumed large prey with their long arms and jaws, playing the role of top predators in Cretaceous marine ecosystems,” the team concluded.
I think I have a new idea for a cryptid, in case anyone wants to spin up some lore.
While there are no longer giant krakens prowling the seas (that we know of), the modern ocean is still home to plenty of bizarre creatures. Case in point: The Golden Orb, a strange object of indeterminate origin first glimpsed in 2023 by a robotic submersible more than two miles under Alaskan waters as part of a NOAA expedition with the ship Okeanos Explorer.
This orb completely baffled the scientific community. Was it an egg mass? A dead sponge? A biofilm? Theories abounded. But now, scientists think they have finally solved the riddle after a thorough lab analysis, according to a new preprint study that has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The verdict is that the orb is a clump of dead cells from the deep-sea anemone Relicanthus daphneae—put another way, these are basically gilded toe-nails.
“During the course of Okeanos Explorer expeditions, it is not uncommon that encountered organisms are not immediately recognized,” said researchers led by Steven Auscavitch of Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. ”However, sometimes real mysteries exist and imagery alone only raises questions. Such is the case of the Golden Orb.”
“Fortunately, the specimen was collected using a suction sampler…and we have determined that the Golden Orb is the organic remnant of Relicanthus daphneae,” the team concluded.
Like the old saying goes, one anemone’s trash is a laboratory’s treasure.
Taart voor het internet en dan specifiek het Nederlandse internet want het html-website-achterzetsel-dinges .nl (punt en el) is JARIG. Op 25 april 1986 werd punt nl voor het eerst als topleveldomein geregistreerd door wiskundemeneer Piet Beertema, die daarmee Vaderlandse- en tevens wereldgeschiedenis schreef. De landcodes .uk, .us en .il bestonden weliswaar, maar in beperkte mate en/of niet voor publiek gebruik. Was allemaal nog jaaaaren voordat het daadwerkelijke internet werd uitgerold, de plek die we inmiddels kennen van Balkenende op Hyves, tokkies op Feesboek, DPG-kerstpakketten op Marktplaats, @Grok is this true, de manosphere, de femosphere, de keeper van Den Haag en natuurlijk van uw roze weblog. We zijn allemaal een beetje schatplichtig aan Piet, en omdat dit 40-jarig jubileum te vieren na de breek een lijstje met onze favoriete punt nl's!
Startpagina punt nl
Kwamen we ooit tegen toen we de p in plaats van de v intypten en sindsdien ons standaard vertrekpunt op het wereldwijde web. Anders raak je nog verdwaald!
Hoelaatishet punt nl
Gewoon goed om te weten.
Hoehetmoet punt nl
Missen we nog dagelijks. Hierop werd stapsgewijs haarfijn uitgelegd neuq0n precies werkt. Sinds het domein ter ziele is doen we maar wat.
Aardappelschilmesje punt nl
Behoeft geen uitleg.
Dagelijkse standaard punt nl
Niets standaards aan. De immer treffende en tevens objectieve nieuwsgaring van deze site is exceptioneel. Zonder de rants van de man met het omkeerbare kapsel kunnen we 's ochtends onmogelijk schijten.
123rollenbaan punt nl
Wereldhit op Instagram. Sinds wij dagelijks zo'n 2 uur naar hun video's kijken (gaat dat zien) zijn we helemaal in de ban van rollenbanen en lopende banden. Er staan inmiddels 19 op GSHQ.
Ishetalbiertijd punt nl
Bierrrr. Worden we vrolijk van. Of agressief, maar ook dat is spannender dan geen bier drinken. Kritiekpunt: op sommige momenten, als we het echt ff nodig hebben, is het antwoord dat de site 'Nee'. Moet aan gewerkt worden.
Mannenzaken punt nl
Hier komt eigenlijk alles samen. Auto's, sport en de objectificatie van vrouwen tot een kunst verheven. Vrouw laat glas water vallen, Mannenzaken kopt: Vrouw heeft beschamend ongelukje en beleeft kletsnatte avond met spetters over haar gezicht en een vochtig pakje dat de ronde contouren van haar tere lijfje niet verhult. Kunnen wij alleen maar respect voor hebben. Wapenfeiten.
JEREZ (ANP) - Collin Veijer heeft voor het eerst in zijn carrière pole position veroverd in de Moto2. De Nederlandse wegracer was de snelste in de kwalificatie voor de Grote Prijs van Spanje op het circuit van Jerez. Hij was nipt sneller dan thuisrijders Álex Escrig en Manuel González.
Veijer is de eerste Nederlandse motorracer na Wilco Zeelenberg, 35 jaar geleden in 1991, die de pole pakt in de Moto2, voorheen de 250cc-klasse.
Vaders met een postnatale depressie verhogen het risico op latere depressie bij hun dochters, maar niet bij hun zonen, concluderen Britse onderzoekers
Ongeveer één op de twintig vaders krijgt te maken met een postnatale depressie, maar hun mentale gezondheid blijft vaak onder de radar van de zorg. Als er al aandacht is voor psychische problemen rond een geboorte, gaat die meestal uit naar de moeder. Nieuwe cijfers laten nu zien dat de mentale toestand van vaders ook op de lange termijn grote gevolgen kan hebben voor hun kinderen – in het bijzonder voor dochters.
Postnatale depressie bij vaders raakt niet alleen hén, maar kan dochters tot ver in de late puberteit blijven achtervolgen.
Grote cohortstudie tot het achttiende jaar
In de studie werden 3.176 gezinnen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk gevolgd vanaf de geboorte van het kind tot de leeftijd van 18 jaar. Op dat moment werden de jongeren uitgebreid bevraagd over hun eigen ervaringen met depressie. Jongvolwassenen van wie de vader rond hun geboorte depressief was, bleken een duidelijk verhoogd risico te hebben op depressieve klachten. Bij zonen werd geen verband gevonden tussen de depressie van hun vader en hun eigen psychische gezondheid.
Vrouwen dragen zowel door hun genen als door hun omgeving een zwaardere last als het om depressie gaat
Waarom vooral dochters kwetsbaar lijken
Waarom vooral dochters zo kwetsbaar zijn, is nog onduidelijk. De onderzoekers vermoeden dat de depressie van de vader het functioneren van het hele gezin verstoort, met meer stress, conflicten en mogelijk ook depressieve klachten bij de moeder als gevolg. Ook zou er tijdens de puberteit een specifieke, gevoelige band tussen vaders en dochters kunnen zijn, waardoor dochters harder worden geraakt door een depressieve ouder.
De auteurs benadrukken dat niet elk kind van een depressieve vader zelf depressief wordt, maar pleiten wel voor meer aandacht en gerichte hulp voor kersverse vaders. “De bevindingen laten zien hoe belangrijk het is om ook vaders actief te vragen naar hun mentale gezondheid na de geboorte,” zegt mede‑auteur Paul Ramchandani.
Vrouwen dragen hoger genetisch risico
Los van de invloed van ouders speelt ook genetica een rol in wie vatbaar is voor depressie. Een recente, grootschalige genetische analyse vond dat vrouwen gemiddeld een hogere genetische kwetsbaarheid voor depressie dragen dan mannen. In die studie werden wereldwijd gegevens van honderdduizenden mensen gecombineerd. Onderzoekers identificeerden bij vrouwen meer genetische varianten die samenhangen met een verhoogd risico op depressie dan bij mannen.
Dat kan deels verklaren waarom vrouwen in de praktijk ongeveer twee keer zo vaak met depressie te maken krijgen als mannen. Tegelijkertijd benadrukken de auteurs dat genen slechts een deel van het verhaal zijn: opvoeding, stress, relaties, trauma en maatschappelijke verwachtingen bepalen mede of die genetische aanleg daadwerkelijk uitmondt in een depressieve stoornis.
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